


and grow

by fleury



Category: Tiny Meat Gang (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, M/M, cody ko existing as a human being? clownery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 14:53:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21101303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleury/pseuds/fleury
Summary: “He’s not justhot,” Cody argues. “He’s the whole package. Hot and, like, really, really sweet.”“So you blew $40 on fertilizer.” Devon rolls his eyes.“You don’t understand!”





	and grow

**Author's Note:**

> i’mback.jpeg(!!!!) 
> 
> u don’t realize how much u miss writing until u spend ur entire day lookin @ photos of gardens

Cody walks into the cute little flower shop off the route to his college with a very specific shopping list drawn up in his head. He doesn’t actually write it out on a notepad or anything because he’s not that prepared, but he’s got a general idea. His garden’s gone to absolute shit after the spring melt, and if he doesn’t do anything about the eyesore in his backyard he might throw a fit.

Plus, his roommate definitely won’t shut up about it either. (“Those carrots look like mush.” “Devon, shut the fuck up.”) It’s a mutual agreement between the both of them that he has to do something about it so, like, he’s doing something. 

But, here’s the thing: he wasn’t planning on getting distracted by a pretty boy. Scratch that, a pretty _smiling_ boy, all big smiles and bright eyes, and everything right in the world packaged up into one gift to humanity. 

The guy goes, “Welcome to Poppy Petals! What can I do you for?” And Cody freezes up. 

He realizes, pretty dumbly, that he’s kind of just standing there staring, but hey, c’est la vie, right? Except it’s definitely not that, because the pretty boy has sunflower glasses perched on top of his hair, and his apron has roses embroidered into the front pocket, and— fuck it, Cody’s going to die today. 

“Uh, sorry,” he stutters out, trying hard to cover up the hesitance in his voice. It doesn’t work, because nothing goes his way _ever_. He glances around the shop, entirely unfamiliar with all of it. Good. Now he has an excuse to trip over absolutely everything he says. “I just wanted to pick up some seeds, my crops are dying.” 

The guy laughs and Cody knows it’s mandatory to be polite to customers, but he swears the laugh reaches his eyes. It steals the breath right from his throat. “Hate it when that happens,” he jokes, leaning over his counter when Cody steps a little closer. “Were you looking for something specific?“

“Uh,” he swallows, because the guy has this voice like honey and Cody just. Wants to hear more of it.

“Some kale seeds, probably. Carrots, radishes. _Oh!_ And Turnips.” Cody’s kind of proud of himself for not accidentally blurting _avocado_ or something. It’s a challenge.

The guy steps around the counter and heads for a rack full of various seeds. “Sounds good,” he hums, leafing through the packets. “How many—“

“Just one of each should be fine,” Cody says, while he watches the guy pluck out the four. He’s definitely somewhat overwhelmed by the sight of him bent over to reach everything. Fuck Cody’s life, the universe must hate him. 

“Cool,” he says, and sets everything down on the counter. “Is that all for today?” Cody would buy out the entire shop if someone this pretty was selling it to him. Like, if he wasn’t bordering on broke, probably. 

He shrugs, laughing a little. “Maybe some other day.”

Cody seriously can’t stop staring at his sunflower glasses. It might show because the guy laughs while he’s ringing up his stuff. “You like ‘em?” He tips them over his eyes, grinning a big toothy smile at him, shameless and so, so proud of himself. Cody‘s done for. “My cousin picked them up for me and I was wearing them to be nice but like, I kind of like them.”

“Well, I mean, they look good on you,” Cody says, while the guy sets them back on the top of his head.

“Yeah?” He grins. “Well, that settles it. They’re pretty much apart of the uniform now.”

The uniform as in the green apron with _rose_ embroidery. Holy fucking shit. This is unfair. 

+

So, here’s the thing. The seeds work fucking fantastic, as expected. Cody’s got a green thumb and he’s not completely stupid, growing vegetables is easy shit. His garden starts looking great in no time. 

But, well. Great growth doesn’t exactly give him a reason to drop by the shop. And he’s got enough seeds to last him for a pretty long time, so that doesn’t work either. 

Cody heads back anyways, knowing he’s going to have to give some reasoning once he steps inside. Something other than compliments because the guy’s trying to run a business and Cody showing up just to look at his pretty face definitely isn’t helping. 

“So, uh, I bought seeds from here a while ago.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember you,” the guy says, all light and easy, like it doesn’t make Cody‘s heart flutter. “How did they go?” 

“Probably could’ve gone better. I mean, I’m not great with gardening and shit, so.” He shrugs, and has the audacity to lie to this nice dude’s face. Fuck it. He’s desperate. “Maybe I overwatered them? Or didn’t use the right soil. I don’t know how this works, I just thought I could plant them and— _bang_, carrots.”

The guy clicks his tongue, looking deep in thought. “Ah, no biggie, dude. We’ll figure this out.”

They talk about Cody’s garden for thirty minutes, and the guy — Noel — goes on about watering schedules, and fertilizers, and sunlight, and everything and anything relating to gardening. He counts stuff off on his fingers, preaching his heart out, and all Cody can do is nod along, watching his lips move while he talks. Noel knows his shit, clearly. And so does Cody, but he plays dumb, making bad jokes just to see Noel crack up. 

“Make sure you check back in a bit, I wanna hear about how this goes,” Noel says sweetly. “And I really do recommend fertilizer, it’ll help.”

“Right,” Cody nods. Even though he already has a giant bag of it in his garage. “Nutrients, or whatever.”

“Exactly. See? Gardening’s not that hard.”

He has to bite back a laugh, and Noel just keeps on beaming, helping him get two bags of fertilizer up on the counter. “Your help means a bunch, man. Thanks.”

“Anytime. That’s what I’m here for.” Noel waits patiently for the receipt to print. “You want me to help you get these into your car?” 

Cody’s face feels hot, because of course Noel’s an angel and so out of his league. “You sure?”

“Yeah, man, totally.” He makes for the back door after sliding the receipt over and Cody shoves it into his back pocket. “Hey, Lacey, I’ll be back in 2,” he calls, before looking back over at Cody. It’s probably just him seeing things, but Noel’s eyes definitely have stars in them. 

They go out to Cody’s car, chattering about the golden rules of gardening, as Noel puts it, and he tells him, “Make sure to bring pictures next time, I wanna see this famous garden I’ve been hearing so much about.”

Cody laughs, because Noel’s a fucking dork, and pops the trunk of his car so they can load everything in. “Everything I touch dies, but hey, we’ll see.” 

Noel looks so fucking hopeful, it messes with Cody’s head a little. “You’ll be great, I promise.” 

He waves at him while Cody’s driving off, and fuck it, he likes him a lot.

+

“Hey, Cody,” Devon coos, and Cody recognizes that tone immediately. Fake nice, because he’s about to complain about something petty as fuck.

“Oh, hey.”

“Why the fuck is the garage full of fertilizer,” he deadpans, his expression dropping. “I know I said your garden looks hideous—“

“You said it looks like what pineapple on pizza tastes like,” Cody reminds him, and Devon laughs at his own joke.

“I did say that, didn’t I?” His smile falters, like he’s fighting himself to keep from chirping Cody some more. “Like, buddy, it looks great, but what the actual fuck are you _doing_? You do not need that much fertilizer, there’s no way it’s good for the plants.”

“I’m not using all of it,” Cody insists, and Devon raises both his eyebrows, completely unconvinced. As if Cody’s that stupid. 

“Yeah? And?”

“There’s a cute guy working at the shop,” he says quietly, speeding over the words, but Devon picks up on them anyways, immediately breaking into a grin. 

“You’re kidding. Cody, I swear.” He sighs. “You can’t just buy everything hot guys sell you,” his voice goes stern, but there’s still an edge of humility in his expression, because he’s never going to let Cody live this down.

“He’s not just _hot_, he’s the whole package, man. Hot and, like, really, really sweet.”

“So you blew $40 on fertilizer.” Devon rolls his eyes.

“You don’t understand!” Cody insists, waving his hands. “He waxed poetic about plants to me for half an hour, and then he helped me put it in my car and— Devon, _oh my god_, he wears sunflower glasses on his head.”

Devon winces. “Sounds a lot like something you’d do.”

“I—“ He blinks, because holy shit. It kind of does. Leave it to Devon to be the rational voice in his life.

“How well do you know him?”

“We’ve talked, like, twice.”

“Awesome,” his voice goes sarcastic. “Ask him out, get to know him a little better.” 

“I can’t just _ask him out_. It’s really complicated, what if he’s not into me? What if he doesn’t date guys that suck at gardening?” Cody gushes, pressing his lips into a thin line. “Or, what if he’s not single.”

“Then you switch flower shops and never show up again.” Devon shrugs. 

“That’s such a dick move.”

He groans, clearly done with Cody’s shit. “I don’t care what you do, just don’t buy anymore fertilizer.”

Cody frowns, because fuck that, he’ll buy more fertilizer if Noel wants him to. “Fine,” he says, and Devon makes an unimpressed face at him.

+

The next time Cody drops by, the first thing he sees is someone other than Noel behind the counter, determinedly filling in the pages of a sketchbook. She looks up a second later, and Cody swears she has the exact same eyes as Noel does. 

“Oh!” Something crosses over her features before she breaks out into a huge grin, splitting her face like a jack-o’-lantern. She turns her head, her braid flipping in the air. “Noel!” 

The back door opens, and Noel rushes out. “What? What happ—“ It’s definitely just Cody, but he swears everything slows, at least a little, when they meet eyes. “Oh. Cody, hey,” he greets, walking over to him while the girl looks like she’s holding back an entire bout of laughter.

“Hey, I tried to grow something I could actually eat this time,” Cody says, and yeah, he could eat his last batch, too, but there’s something special about following the instructions Noel specifically gave him. Even if it’s the same shit he already did. 

“Aw, you got pictures?” Noel asks, and the girl behind the counter finally cracks up. He looks over at her while Cody pulls out his phone, and they do this weird fucking telekinetic exchange of words. The tips of Noel’s ears are red, and the girl’s grin only grows wider at that. “Shut up, Lacey.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she apologizes, holding her hands up before returning to her book. 

Cody has Noel’s full attention when he hands his phone over, telling him to scroll to get all the photos of his garden. It’s a little overwhelming, being this close to him without the counter to separate them. But it gives Cody a chance to appreciate just how perfect his hair is, and fight himself from running his fingers through it.

“Wow,” Noel breathes, a little awe-struck. Cody can feel himself flushing under his gaze. “These are _really_ good. Like, _wow_. You’re a fast fucking learner, I was half-sure you weren’t paying attention to anything I was saying last time.”

“I—“

“I’m just kidding.” He hands his phone back over, their fingers brushing along the side of it. “This is really great, honestly. I appreciate the progress report.” 

“Hey, I do what I can.”

“I bet.” Noel laughs. “Well, is there anything else I can help you with?”

Fuck. Cody has no idea. He doesn’t exactly need anything. “Um.” He looks around the shop, his eyes catching on some of the pre-grown plants and— “I was thinking about picking up something to brighten up my place. Flowers, maybe?” 

Noel looks like a kid in a candy shop, something behind his eyes sparkling. “Can I make a suggestion?”

“Hell yeah, you’re the professional.”

“You think so?” His smile hangs loosely off his lips. “Pansies, definitely. The weather’s great for them,” he says, because fuck it, Noel knows everything. 

Cody swears he nearly chokes on his own tongue. “Yeah? That sounds perfect,” he replies, as casually as he can, which isn’t very casual. 

Noel bites his lip when he grins. “Then it’s settled.” 

Lacey rings up his potted pansies while Noel tells him to make sure they get at least 6 hours of sunlight, and Cody _knows_, but he likes listening to Noel talk, likes how he just drifts off into his own little world when he talks about plant care, giving Cody’s shoulder teasing touching whenever he cracks a joke. It makes his heart race. 

“Come back soon!” Noel says, as he’s leaving, and Cody could kiss him.

+

Cody’s been to the shop more than a few times now, stopping by at least twice a week just to check in with Noel, chatting with him about his day and plants, listening to Noel talk about some crazy customer that was pressing flowers to their ear, this and that. They’ve got more than a customer/employee relationship, a lot more. 

And Cody drops by one evening to pick up some kale seeds, because he’s fresh out, and going anywhere else for his gardening needs feels like a crime at this point, but the shop’s a little dimmer than it usually is, especially for this late in the day. He thinks for a second that it’s closed, but the door opens when he tries, and Noel’s head snaps up from where he’s sitting up on the counter, snug in a bomber jacket. This is the first time he’s seeing him without his stupid sunflower glasses.

“Are you guys closed?” He asks warily, because this is new. Noel looks so fucking lost, and Cody only realizes when he gets closer that his eyes are red, a little puffy. 

“Sorry, sorry,” he rushes, like he’s offended Cody or something. “No. Or, well, yes. I was just heading out, I thought I locked the door. I’m sorry, do you need anything?” His smile doesn’t reach his eyes, it’s not the kind that lights his face up, not like it usually does. Cody feels his chest tighten. 

“Hey, what happened?” He makes sure to keep his voice gentle, because Noel looks absolutely shattered, like he could break at any second. “You can tell me. I’m here for you, I promise.”

He rubs his eye with the heel of his hand. “It’s my Grandpa. He, uh, he’s in the hospital, I think it’s serious. I — I don’t know for sure. I just got a call and I—“ Noel grits his teeth, like he’s holding back an entire wall of grief. “I feel so stupid, but I’m so worried. I don’t know what to _do_.”

“I’m so sorry,” Cody whispers, keeping his expression serious, and when Noel blinks, Cody can see tears catching on his lashes. “Hey, c’mere, I’ve got you.” 

Noel slides off the counter and wraps his arms around Cody like it’s where he belongs, and Cody’s hands find his waist before he can help it, holding him close while Noel tucks his face in his neck. 

He runs slow circles into his back when he hears his shallow breathing, chewing on the corner of his lip. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Just— stay?” He croaks, his breath hitting Cody’s collarbone, he still doesn’t let go, slotting himself against Cody.

Cody can feel the feather of his eyelashes, brushing up against his skin and leaving damp little kisses. He doesn’t tilt into it, just keeps Noel where he is, holding him carefully. “Yeah, as long as you need,” he says. 

It’s a few minutes of sniffing and quietly shed tears later that Noel pulls back, his eyes still red, but he looks completely cried out, like he wouldn’t be able to squeeze another tear out if he tried.  
“Thank you,” he mumbles, looking unsure of what to do with his hands. 

“I care about you, man, I’ll always have a shoulder for you to cry on.” Cody smiles carefully, because he‘s half-sure Noel might break down again.

“Pretty literally, huh?” His lips quirk upwards, if only barely, but it’s still enough to pull the weight off Cody’s chest. 

“Guess so,” he says. “Is there anything else I can do? Do you need a ride? Just say the word.”

“I’m okay, I promise.” Noel reaches for the counter, jingling his car keys. “I’m heading out, but did you need anything?”

Cody’s not gonna make him check out a pack of seeds, because it’d be fucking selfish. So, he shakes his head. “Nah, lemme walk you out to your car.”

Noel laughs quietly and Cody throws an arm around his shoulder once he locks up, keeping him pressed into his side. Noel doesn’t question it, just looks up at him through his eyelashes and leans closer. 

They break apart once they get to Noel’s car, really only because they have to, and Noel still looks wary about parting. 

“Keep me updated, yeah?” Cody tells him lightly.

“‘Course, you know where to find me.” It probably comes out a little more bitter than Noel had intended, but Cody really does think it’s justifiable anyways. “I’m gonna go, but seriously. Thank you.”

“Anytime.” 

He pulls him in for a loose hug, and Cody swears he feels lips brush his cheek, but Noel’s in his car before he can question it. He wills down the urge to touch his cheek, instead heading back to his own car, where— yes, he _does_ touch his cheek. It feels impossible not to.

+

It takes a lot of courage to drop by the shop again, especially because Cody’s mind races every time he thinks about Noel, hoping he’s okay. And the vivid remembrance of his lips dragging across his cheek, and tiny smile on Noel’s lips right afterwards. Cody thinks he might be completely whipped, because he’s dizzy just thinking about it.

A week later he finds himself coming back to the shop, still out the pack of seeds he was intending to buy. He guesses that’ll be his excuse for dropping by this time.

Noel pokes his head out from the back when the front door jingles, and Cody’s eyes immediately catch on his smile, and then the yellow pansy tucked behind his ear, which— _fuck_, Cody’s swooning. There’s no way he’s not imagining things.

“Cody, hey, what’s up?” 

Cody feels a content smile crawl over his lips. “You look great.”

Noel’s back behind the counter once Cody reaches him, leaning over a little. “You’ve got great taste,” he says, his tone sweet and teasing.

“Trust me, I know.” Cody cuts in before Noel can insert a comment, “How’s your Grandpa by the way?”

“He’s back home and doing good,” Noel says, looking a lot more pleased than he had a week ago. 

Cody grins, because seeing Noel happy is unfairly contagious. 

“And before I forget,” Noel starts. “I got you something.”

“You shouldn’t have,” Cody says, dropping his voice because Noel definitely sways a little closer before shifting back to reach under the counter. He’s barely getting over the loss of heat before Noel’s shoving a bundle of daisies and sunflowers his way. And Cody swears it feels like he’s got summer in his hands, held together by wrapping paper that crinkles underneath his fingers.

He opens his mouth to say something, because _holy shit_ he’s going to pay for this. It looks painstakingly made, topped off with a little note sticking out of the centre of it all, and Noel must catch him staring because he says, looking excited and a tad terrified, “Don’t open that until later.”

“Noel, this is _beautiful_. How much—“

“I’m not letting you pay for them, they’re a gift,” he says, pressing his hip to the counter and leaning over. “Or, like, they’re defective. Can’t sell ‘em.”

Clearly, they’re not. Cody doesn’t even know what defective flowers look like, but these have to be on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. He holds them close, helplessly flattered. “Convincing, wanna try that again?”

Noel blows out a breath of air, looking determined. “You’re a great guy, man. You deserve nice things. And you’re a total slut for flowers, so.”

Cody can’t argue with that, but like, “Says the florist.”

They chirp each other back and forth, and Cody occasionally catches himself thinking about the kiss, but that’s as bad as it gets. Aside from, like, literally getting a bouquet from Noel.

He doesn’t leave the shop with kale seeds, but he leaves with a smile on his face, flowers, and—

Cody opens the note when he pulls up to his place, too excited to wait until he gets inside. 

_not a daisy goes by that you don’t cross my mind. if i didn’t ask you out, i’d have to be blind_

Cody doesn’t hold in the laugh that threatens to rumble out of his throat, reading the note over and over. 

And there’s a number under the scrawl that he decides to text before the pun changes his mind.

_you’re so lucky i like you -C_

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [coffee](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21496183) by [rocketsfindplanets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketsfindplanets/pseuds/rocketsfindplanets)


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